Is it Time to Bridge Your Heavy Civil Construction Project with Tech? [Scorecard]

How to Complete Complex Projects on Time and Budget

Bring up the “Big Dig” to your average Bostonian, and it will become quickly clear it’s still a touchy topic–even ten years later. Also known as the Central Artery and Tunnel, the heavy civil construction project is recognized as the most expensive highway in US history. More commonly for Boston-Natives, it’s a dark chapter in the city’s history and a project that seemed never to end. Eight years over schedule, more than $12 billion over budget, ripe with design flaws and even fatalities, Beantown taxpayers are still paying for it–and will be through 2038. Although the Big Dig has truly transformed Boston’s downtown and traffic for the better, the legacy the civil construction project left is still remembered publically as one of failure.

While admittedly the project was massively complex, we can’t help but wonder; if field teams had access to the same technology we have available today, would the Big Dig have been as big of a failure as it was?

The majority of construction projects are considered complex to some degree. That being said, civil construction projects seem to be on a whole new level of “it’s complicated.” Large project teams, which can span distances of up to hundreds of miles, often have little to no internet connection. Add in the fact that project scope frequently changes and evolves due to unforeseen circumstances and the hidden nature of underground jobsites.

How to Complete Civil Construction Projects Faster and Cheaper

If you’re part of any heavy civil construction project team, you most likely scored on the high end of our scorecard. Fortunately, there’s a wealth of technology available on the market to help you complete jobs on time and budget. From innovations in design and visualization like BIM and VR to collaboration enhancers like construction productivity software and GPS enabled site progress photos and equipment tracking, new technology easily connects remote teams.

If they say information is power, it’s never been truer on a construction site. Information gaps impact decision making and hinder deployment of resources to where they are needed most. But with the right technology, you can begin to connect large and spread out project teams, and get the right information into the right hands, exactly when it’s needed.

Transform Your Legacy: Bridge the Field

At the core of it, heavy civil construction projects are meant to serve the public. While your project might end up getting completed project eventually, think about the real legacy you want your project to leave. Do you want your legacy to be a constant reminder of a project doomed from the start, or do you want to create something where progress creates excitement and anticipation for the community it benefits? The choice is yours, but to get to the latter, you need the right tools in your arsenal. By bridging your projects with the right technology, your next big dig doesn’t have to carry the baggage after its complete.

Grace Ellis

As a Content Marketing Manager at PlanGrid, Grace is the managing editor for the PlanGrid Construction Productivity Blog. With over eight years of experience in marketing, communications and PR for technology companies, she is specialized in high-quality content creation across both traditional and digital media platforms.

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